ABBREVIATIONS

Drug administration

In 2005, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) in the USA published National Patient Safety Goals. These include a series of recommendations about ways in which confusion (and thus errors) can be reduced by avoiding the use of certain abbreviations on prescriptions. The full set of recommendations is available at http://www.jointcommission.org/standards_information/npsgs.aspx.

Although some traditional abbreviations remain acceptable (e.g. Table 1), others are not. Thus, it is recommended that, as in PCF the following are written in full:

at bedtime

once daily

each morning

every other day.

Table 1 Abbreviations in PCF for drug administration times

Times

UK

Latin

Twice per day

b.d.

bis die

Three times per day

t.d.s.

ter die sumendus

Four times per day

q.d.s.

quarta die sumendus

Every 4 hours etc.

q4h

quaque quarta hora

Rescue medication (as needed/required)

p.r.n.

pro re nata

Give immediately

stat

stat

Because of widespread usage, the term ‘immediate-release’ is now used (without abbreviation) in PCF, rather than ‘normal-release’. For ‘slow-release’, ‘extended-release’ etc., ‘m/r’ (modified-release) is used generically.

Although the following conventions have not been adopted in PCF, readers should be aware of the following recommendations for handwritten and printed prescriptions, and other printed medical matter, e.g. packaging, patient records:

include a space between the drug dose and the unit of measure, e.g. 25 mg, not 25mg

write 'per' instead of an oblique (mistaken for a figure 1), e.g. 200 mg per day, not 200mg/day

use 'subcut' or 'subcutaneous' instead of SC (mistaken for SL)

write 'less than' or 'greater than' instead of < and > (mistaken for a letter L or figure 7; or written the wrong way round and thus signifying the opposite of the intended meaning).

a.c.

ante cibum (before food)

amp

ampoule containing a single dose (cf. vial)

CD

controlled drug; preparation subject to prescription requirements under the Misuse of Drugs Act (UK); for regulations see BNF